Start Of The Season

This is it!  The start of "the most wonderful time of year"!  I love it!

For me, it starts on Thanksgiving morning.  I have a tradition I love- I settle myself in front of the Macy's Parade and enjoy some goodies while writing Christmas cards.

I love Christmas cards.  I love everything about them- selecting them, writing them and receiving them.  I spend a lot of time each fall picking the design and photos.  I prefer to get a design from an etsy seller and then print them.

This year I used Natalie from Nattysuedesigns.  She has tons- pages upon pages- of designs!  I tend to like cards that a bit quirky with a modern design using fun wording and colors.  I also try to stay away from a motif that screams "Christmas" (for all our friends who don't celebrated).  She had many that fit my requirements, I had a hard time picking one.  Also Natalie was fast, friendly and so patient with my "tweaks" and requests for resizes.  If you are still card shopping check her out!

This year, for the first time, I'm doing postcards.  It is a bit more "green"- both economically and environmentally.  They should arrive today. I hope they turned out well.

Without further ado ....

Our 2011 Christmas Card

If you are expecting one in real life and don't want to ruin the surprise- stop reading now!

Happy Holiday Season! 

*this post was not sponsored in anyway.

Breads, Pies, Bars- Oh My!

We are relaxing and recovering from a fun and very busy holiday weekend.  Photos will be shared soon.  Hope you all had great Thanksgiving! 

On to Christmas!

The theme of Kim's DIY party this week is COOKIES! 

Last year I shared my Grandmother's Missouri Cookies.  Since my Cookies and Cocktails holiday party is weeks away, I have yet to start baking..... except for the 6 hours of baking my sister and I did the day before Thanksgiving.


The results of our work~

None of our goodies are technically cookies but I thought I'd share fun, festive recipe regardless.  
Cranberry Supreme Pie (the half eaten pie in the foreground of the photo) 
- 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries 
- 1/2 c sugar
-1/2 c walnuts 
- 1 c. sugar
- 1 c. flour
- 2 eggs
- melted together- 1/2 stick butter, 1/4 c Crisco shortening 


preheat oven to 325


1. put berries in greased pie plate
2. sprinkle with 1/2 c sugar and nuts
3. in a bowl beat eggs and 1 c sugar
4. stir in flour
5. add melted butter/shortening mixture 
6. mix well
7. pour mixture over cranberries 


bake for  50- 60 minutes - until golden brown on top and bubbly on the sides. 


What seasonal treats do you love?

Thanksgiving

Notice anything in these photos?

Can you tell we are hosting not only Thanksgiving for 9 but 5 house-guests the holiday weekend?


I'm in a rush to get baking, but before I tie on my apron- some fall decorations.  Kim's theme this week was "dare to entertain".  Now normally I'm not great at table tops, but this year more than ever the rush was on; we had the shop for food, plan the menu, finish the kitchen (more on that next week), etc. And in the move a box of fall decor (with my monogrammed funkin and crafted felt pumpkins) went missing.  So very sad.


So the decorating happened last night.  The good news was that my sister is here, so not only was it a lot of fun to have her join in, but she was a huge help.  Thanks Toots.


On to the photos- all taken at night, sorry.

detail shot- I'll show how I made these holders later in the week

woven pumpkins- Target $2 spot earlier in the fall

The dinning room table 

 Pilgrims in the dinning room

 The Thankful tree from last year's DIY party- it got "trimmed" in the move

 Cookie Jar with figure friendly, seasonally "treats"

Guest room dresser

In addition to my sister and John pitching in for the decorating, we were overseen by two cute, and festive pups (they are sporting matching turkey bandannas) .

I hope everyone has a wonderful, restful and tasty Thanksgiving!

Welcome to Thanksgiving

It's that time of year....to me Halloween is the start of the Holiday Season.  And once again Kim is hosting the DIY part.

Last year, for the first week of the challenge- Thankful, my mom and I "grew" a Thankful Tree.

This year's project needed to come together faster.  Using only items I had in my craft room and the drawings of a sweet student, I created Welcome Cards.  My parents, sister, Aunt and Uncle are visiting for the holiday; I'll leave the cards on their pillows.  Hopefully they'll know how pleased we are to have them.

This year I am thankful that my family is traveling to spend the holiday with us.  And I'm thankful for the sweet student who drew the leaves.

What are you thankful for?

Want to see what the others created?  Go see Kim's post!

Happy Thanksgiving

Our fall mantel and wreath